1930's inspired Ugly Stick

Junior Member

AI always loved the old crop dusters back home. Farmers had them sitting stored in barns, and they had tons of decals and advertising all over them. You might only see them at air shows, or once in a while the farmer would fly a pass or two and pack them back in the barn, but when you saw on you never forgot it. Kinda like a Ugly Stick! I built this ugly stick after building three or four, 3 channel ones and it is way better as a 4 channel plane. I built this one using Gorilla Glue and minimal hot glue to keep the weight down. The plan worked well she weighs in at 16 oz with a 1300mah 3 cell battery attached.

The model performs well. Takes off and climbs right out at about 50-60% throttle, and will cruise at 40% with no problems. It will do any aerobatics I want to do, loops, stall turns, alerion rolls with no problems. It has a pretty good glide slope with the larger wing too. I'm happy the way she turned out. I'll try to get a video on here soon. Though you all might want to check it out and give you comments and advice.

I had to make some changes in the motor department after this video if you watch you will see the plane flies well even in high winds but the motor I had on it at first lost the bearings during the flight it made for a fun video any way.

Member

Nice simple build! That's how I like them! Great job! The old decals are great!
I like the forward position of the landing gear!
Is that a KFM4 wing? Great idea with the spar on it.
I might have made the ailerons a little more generous but as you said it aileron rolls well so why mess with it?
Looks like we have similar building ideas!View attachment 36302
Kick-n-it old school!

Junior Member

Thanks! Yeah we kinda have the same taste. I read your post on your Ugly Stick a while back. Nice flying plane! The wing is just a KFm2 with the spar Gorilla glued into the back of the step. I usually try to be as modest as I can with alerions. I learned my lesson on another build when I had a tip stalling plane that I couldn't fly. I try to keep all my landing gear forward positioned like that if at all possible I like the look of it.

Member

Thanks! Yeah we kinda have the same taste. I read your post on your Ugly Stick a while back. Nice flying plane! The wing is just a KFm2 with the spar Gorilla glued into the back of the step. I usually try to be as modest as I can with alerions. I learned my lesson on another build when I had a tip stalling plane that I couldn't fly. I try to keep all my landing gear forward positioned like that if at all possible I like the look of it.

Kfm2 cool! I could not tell by the first pictures but it is clear on the new pictures. I like the fuse taper also!
Funny thing them ailerons, I built one with smallish ailerons and all the plane would do was twitch in the aileron direction but never turn! LOL! So now I over size them and just cut the rates down on the radio! As Pap-paw always said" There's more than one way to skin a cat!"

Junior Member

I had to make some changes to the plane after taking the video I added. I added a Turnigy D2830/11 and HK 30AMP ESC. The first motor lost the bearings. I'm really surprised how well this plane flies in higher winds. I flew it today in almost 15mph winds no problem. I'll try to get another video of it flying with the new motor on it and actually doing so better aerobatics.

Junior Member

After almost a month of flying the new Ugly Stick every time I got a chance. I flnally wore the KFm2 wing out. It lost all diherdrial and was kinda floppy so, I decided to go another route with the new wing and make a air foil style style wing for it. It's a lot like the boody wonder wing or a KFm3. The wing provides alot more lift and is a little more stable in wind. It improved the glide slope greatly, but didn't take away from the planes abitity to do aerobatics. I'll try to get a video on here as soon as possible so you can see the results.

Junior Member

AkimboGlueGuns, I have had the FB Stick Plans Downloaded for a long time just haven't got to building it yet. Too many projects and not enough time. I'm glad you like his plane so much though it is an amazing flyer.